UKIP voters have been stabbed in the back once again by yet another scoundrel MEP from that party, Mr Tom Wise, who along with his “researcher” has been arrested for fraud.

Mr Wise, who was elected for UKIP in East Anglia in 2004, has been charged by Bedfordshire Police in terms of a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) order.

He and his “researcher” Lindsay Jenkins have been charged with one count each of false accounting and one count each of money laundering.

Mr Wise was in the headlines in June last year when he was quoted in a newspaper boasting that being in the European Parliament was “the opportunity to make shed-loads of money.”

He claimed £40,000 to pay his assistant. However the UKIP MEP was in fact channelling a large amount of this money into his own account.

His assistant was only receiving £13,555 whilst Mr Wise spent some of the proceeds on a French car.

Derek Frame, reviewing lawyer of the CPS Special Crime Division, said in a statement: “Following the publication of a news article in October 2005 relating to Mr Wise and Ms Jenkins, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) began an investigation into Mr Wise’s use of allowances.

“I received the full file on 20 March 2009 and carefully reviewed the evidence before making this decision.

“These charges relate to alleged offences committed between October 2004 and September 2005. At the time Mr Wise was a Member of the European Parliament representing the United Kingdom Independence Party and Ms Jenkins was employed by him as a researcher.”

Mr Wise and his researcher are due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 27.

When the arrest became apparent, UKIP quickly scrambled to suspend Mr Wise. They have now lost two of their MEPs to similar scandals.